FIRST...

FIRST...the school fairy came bringing new backpacks, lunch boxes, water bottles and tooth brushes!

Then it was time to read "The Night Before Kindergarten"

The FIRST day of School Picture

The long walk to the classroom

FIRST day in 3rd grade!

FIRST day in Kindergarten

The FIRST day without Alli and Zach

The FIRST thing Josh and I did to make us feel better was to take silly pictures of each other!

And yes, this is the FIRST blog post in almost two years but hopefully not the last!

Halloween

The end of October brought a trip to Disneyland which was fun to see all decked out for Halloween. Ryan was so sick that he was unable to make it, but we tried to have fun without him! Zachary was the first to tell me what he wanted to be for Halloween...a dog. But when it came to his Halloween parade at preschool he wanted to wear his dress-up police costume. Whatever makes them happy, right? Allison chose to be a cat, and then I got to thinking that it would be fun to do a family costume related to cats and dogs. I came up with "It's raining cats and dogs," I had planned for Ryan and I to wear rain coats and rain boots, but Ryan was still under the weather, and it was extremely hot, and Zach and Josh were coming down with something, so we were lucky to get the picture we got! We did a little trick-or treating until Zach got a fever and then we called it a day!We saw all the Disney characters dressed up, which the kids LOVED!

Here is Zach with his teacher Ms. Jennifer


Allison was very proud that her pumpkin was carved liked a cat!

Here are my munchkins

"It's Raining Cats and Dogs!"

Fall Fun!

October was a busy month with lots of fun activities. The first part of October we went to the Cal Poly pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins. It was our first time going there, but definitely not our last. We had a ton of fun! Ryan told the kids they could pick out any pumpkin as long as they could carry it. Allison looked long and hard for the biggest one she could carry! Zach was happy with whatever one was right by his feet. The kids got their faces painted and played a few Halloween games. Other then the almost 100 degree weather, it was how I pictured going to a fall pumpkin patch would be. Fun times!

6 Years Old!

Well, here we are almost to the end of 2009 and I am hoping to catch up on my blogging! I feel that much of this year has been "catching up" when it comes to blogging, but something has to take a back seat to changing diapers, volunteering in Allison's classroom, teaching in my classroom, going to violin lessons, taking care of sick kids and husband and self, Wednesday night church activities, mounds of laundry, you get the idea! So...we start up again at Allison's sixth birthday, September 12, 2009. I really can't believe my little girl is six. She is fun and spunky as ever! She is always in a good mood and really cares about everyone. The littlest things make her happy and we are so lucky to have her in our family. For her birthday it was just Ryan, myself, and Alli that went to Downtown Disney to Build-a Bear where she got to make her very first bear. She loved it! It was nice to spend time with just her. We then surprised her by meeting up with the Koch's, Grandma, and the boy's at Chuck-E-Cheese for dinner, games, and cupcakes. It was a great day!

Here she is in her new sweatshirt from Grandma and holding up six fingers...very proud to be six!
After Downtown Disney we blindfolded her to surprise her with Chuck-E-Cheese. She didn't like it one bit! She was mad because she didn't know what was going on. She really likes to know what is going on at ALL times. She forgave us once she saw where we were.


Here she is with her new bear. She named it Rainbow Birthday Bear.

This sweet smile reminds me of something she recently said. She had a dentist appoint met the other day and before we went she said, "Mom, I hope I get a silver front tooth." I looked at her very surprised and asked why. She said, "because I want to be like my friends at school." All I could say was I loved her and her teeth just the way they are! Love you so much Allison!

First Grade, Preschool, and Joshy!

Allison started First grade and she is loving every minute! I can't believe how fast the years are going.Here she is in front of her classroom. She is in the main hall this year and thinks that is pretty cool.
Here is the studious worker! I think she is more social than studious, but she is doing great so far. On Fridays I eat lunch with Mrs. Langdale, Alli's teacher, and she has already shared some funny stories. Like, Allison asking her to microwave her leftover pasta for her. Or if Mrs. Langdale could organize her desk for her while she is at recess. Who gets this kind of treatment? Where does she think she is? Club Med or something? Mrs Langdale is great and handles her well, and says she is always so happy and fun to be around! I agree.

Here is Zachy boy on his first day of Preschool. This is his second year at the preschool and he is very excited to be in the monkey class with Mrs. Jennifer. I had to work that day, so this is the only picture we got of this sweet boy!

And here is my Joshy boy! What else can I say but we have tons of fun while Allison and Zachary are at school. We color on our faces, we squeeze out toothpaste from the tubes, we lock mommy out of the house, we take every shoe out of the closet, we eat chalk, and the list goes on and on. This kid does stuff that my other two never did. I think Zachary says it best when he calls Josh "The crazy-rat boy!"

FIRST lost tooth & FIRST day of FIRST grade!

It was a close call, but Alli lost her first tooth before the first day of school! (within a couple weeks I should say) She was so sad in Kindergarten when all the other kids were losing teeth and she wasn't. But now she gets to start first grade with a cute hole in her mouth. She is so proud! How the tooth came out...Ryan put on his head gear, tied dental floss around the tooth, gave it a pull, and out it came! Personally, I wasn't fond of this method, but Allison didn't think twice and she said it didn't hurt at all. This is a perfect dad job!
Here is the tooth hanging from the floss!

The proud smile! (Her teeth are a little yellow...maybe lighting from the camera, maybe not!)

First day of school pictures to follow!

What's your cell phone story?

I didn't have a cell phone story until today. I have heard some funny ones...like my mom dropping hers in the toilet at work and it was an automatic flush and it flushed before she could get it out! I don't think mine is quite that good but now I at least have a cell phone story. Today I was outside with Josh (we were watching the chickens) I was talking to Nora on my cell phone, and Josh got distracted by something in the pool. So, I followed him near the pool and as I was standing there a gnat flew in my nose. I'm not sure why I didn't swat at it with my other hand, but with the hand I was holding the phone with. The phone went flying into the pool and all I hear come out of Joshy's mouth is "UH-O." It's is favorite thing to say right now. For a split second I thought about diving in and getting it (like it was my kid or something) but I went for the pool net and grabbed it out. I let it dry out and it seems to somewhat be working. Certain numbers are not, but maybe it just needs a few more hours to chill out???? If you need to get a hold of me, call the house phone! What is your cell phone story?

Where's Zachary?

The other day we were out swimming and Zachary need to use the bathroom. I told him to get out, grab a towel and them come back out. This is pretty much a usual occurrence even though I make him go before he goes outside to swim. Why is that? Anyway, it was taking him a LONG time to come back out. So I went in to check on him and this is what I found! He didn't even make it to the bathroom. I could tell because his wet footprints went straight to the bed. He was also barely on the bed and with even a twitch would have fallen off. So the second picture is after I pushed him over so he wouldn't fall off the bed. It had been a long day and Zachy is my one who likes his sleep! I wonder if that was his plan all along...

Fourth of July

Fourth of July this year was fun as usual. We had our second annual bike/bbq/parade party down in Huntington Beach. Nora has a nice friend who lets us come, crash on her lawn, and watch the parade. There is great food, an awesome parade, and great company. This year David and Kenna joined us with little Addie who at one month enjoyed her first bike ride. Uncle Stevie was down and of course Grandma, the Kochs, and us!

The Gang!

Josh LOVED the parade.

This was Alli's first time riding her two wheeler down to the parade. She did a great job keeping up with all of us. She is getting so big!

Zachary was bumped out of the trailer and rode on the bike attachment

Joshy was buddied up with June bug and kept taking her paci in and out of her mouth. She didn't seem to mind. It was better than the alternative of Charlie riding with Josh. Charlie was originally placed with Josh, but within seconds Charlie was whacking away and Josh was in tears. So..."solitary confinement" it was for Charlie boy!

Father's Day

Father's day landed the day before Ryan and I left for our big trip (I will post about it soon) so I was busy getting things ready for us to leave. I did make a nice dinner for him, but the only "presents" Ryan got were these cool ties the kids made for him. Alli and Zach were so proud of them and couldn't wait for Ryan to wear them to church. He had to wear both of course!

Last day of Kindergarten

The last day a Kindergarten was harder for me than the first day. It was saying goodbye to so many things. No more eating lunch separate from the rest of the school, a separate play ground, a special pick up and drop off area, an awesome teacher... it is making me tear up as I write this. Allison had a great Kindergarten year and I am sad to see it end. Allison on the other hand is more than excited to be in first grade. She is ready for the big playground, eating lunch with who she chooses and just being a bigger kid. She is ready, and I guess I have no choice in the matter! This year Mrs. Mitchell, Alli's teacher, was just perfect for her. She was loving but firm. She had so many great ideas and project and I know Allison learned a lot from her. We couldn't have asked for more. The day before the last day of school, her class had a teddy bear picnic. Each family brought food, we ate outside and the kids sang a few songs and poems for the parents. It was a great way to end the year.

Disneyland

In June, Emily came home with her family for a visit. The highlight of her visit was taking a trip to Disneyland. The whole gang went! I'm a little disappointed because for some reason my camera did not have a lot of pictures on it ( I think mom has ALL the pictures on her camera!) For having two infants (June & Abby) three toddlers (Grace, Charlie & Josh) and two "kids"(Alli & Zach) we had a great day. With Em, Ben, Nora, Adam, Grandma, Ryan and myself, that makes 14! Nora and Em were troopers with breastfeeding their babies on It's a Small World.! The highlight for me was watching my kids faces when I surprised them with cotton candy. Any place we ever go that has cotton candy they beg to have some. They are very good when I say no. They have been turned down countless of times! So, I thought I would surprise them at Disneyland. The look on their faces was priceless! I love the simple things that make kids so happy. It was a super day!

Zachary went straight for it!

Two happy kids!

Joshy meeting goofy (a perfect character for him to meet!)

It's a small world (Nora and Emily are hiding in the back!)

Chicken Coop

Right before school was out Ryan decided to take on a project. In Ryan's fashion he was looking through the Sunset magazine and saw an article on chicken coops and thought it would be fun to build one. Not that there were a million other projects that needed to be done, or finished (that was my two cents given.) Needless to say the kids had fun building the coop and picking out the chickens. The chickens were just days old when we got them and they had to stay inside with a heat lamp for a couple of WEEKS. Can you tell my joy?! Now they are outside and everyone is much happier. Eggs will be coming in about a month or so. If you are interested in fresh eggs please contact Ryan!

(pictures are out of order)


Finished coop

Messy, baby chickens

The helpers!